All businesses evolve over time. The commercial dairy production business has evolved into a capital and labor intensive industrial process. For these reasons, increased emphasis has been placed on efficient use of labor in the cow milking process. As larger herds are assembled, shift milking has become commonplace. Repetition of the same task for 8 hours presents the opportunity to refine the motions used in milking to allow enhanced human comfort by minimizing unnecessary motion. Milking parlors are used on many dairies. The design of modern parlors reflects the trend to organize the task of milking. Parlors have evolved from side-opening stalls, where cows stand nose-to-tail and are released individually, to a herringbone arrangement where cows are released as a string, to the parabone (a more oblique version of the herringbone) to the parallel parlor, where cows stand side by side, perpendicular to the operator pit and are released as a group. This is part of the effort to milk large groups as quickly and easily as possible. This concentration of cows in a small space comes at the expense of working space for the human operator. It also concentrates manure in the work area.
Mechanization used in milking parlors has also evolved from a basic milking machine plugged into a stainless steel milk line to a computer controlled integrated mechanism that may electronically identify each cow, record milk weights automatically, alert the operator to problems, detect the end of the milking process of a cow and remove the machine, cut out a sick animal, and sanitize each milking unit between cows.
It is the convergence of human labor, unpredictable and messy animal behavior, and the use of technology to milk cows that leads us to the present invention. Currently, cows enter one side of a milking parlor and jostle into position. After prepping the udder, the operator grips the bottom of the milking unit, releases the automatic take-off and moves the unit under the cow with the teat cups in a hanging down position to cut off vacuum leaks. The operator is required to reach down with his free hand to grasp and attach the four teat cups individually to the teats.
When the cow is done milking, the automatic take-off senses low milk flow and activates the retractor. Typically, the retractor is attached by a chain or cord to the top of the claw, which retracts it in an upright position while the teat cups fall down or on the bottom of the claw which inverts the unit. Both methods allow the teat cups to drag across the floor or the leg of the cow when removed, spilling milk on the platform and picking up manure.
Neither of these rest positions provide a convenient starting point for the operator as they begin to apply the machine to the next cow. In the first case, the unit dangles freely and occupies a maximum amount of working space. In the second case, the operator must turn the machine over before attaching it. In both instances, the operator must wrestle the unit into position before it may be attached. In parlors where 130-150 cows per man per hour are to be milked, this wrestling is a waste of time and motion. This wrestling motion and a constant push for improved sanitation has led to our development of the upright milking technology. This technology is adaptable to most modern milking parlor installations.